Several Writing Skills Commonly Used in Novel Writing

Writing, like cooking, is a process of selecting materials, selecting materials, using materials, and making them. During this process, learning and mastering some writing tools and skills will help improve your writing level and create better works.


1. Detailed description

details make a difference. Many good writers are obsessive and meticulous about details. When zooming in on everything, there is always a myriad of details, many beyond what is available. At this point, it can be recorded for later use.


How to search for details

The more time you spend searching for details, the more likely you are to come up with more interesting and useful details. There are four main ways to search for details.


Focus on past times and places. Take notes in the present tense and use sensory descriptions.


Focus on the current scene. Choose a place that you haven't been to in a long time, or that you don't know at all, so that you won't be affected by your previous impressions.


Keep a record of what's going on around you. Carry a small notebook with you and jot down any details, conversations, descriptions, and layouts that are useful to your writing.


Learn to keep a writer's journal. Things like story ideas, overheard dialogues, character creation dialogues, details of locations or settings, other writers' writing skills, and everything else that has to do with creating a novel.




2. Channels to search for details


Search details are available through the following channels.


Places that exist or are imagined, including their maps, floor plans, and schematic diagrams, allow you to understand the background of the story more clearly, so that they can be presented to readers more realistically.


A resource for watching movies, TV shows, and conveying practical information through visual images and intricate details.


Other sources, such as newspapers and magazines, columns, and comic strips, can help develop the plot of the story.


Constant observation from real life. Some things that happen in life, some people you meet, some news you hear, may become the material for writing.

1.jpg

3. Handling of details

In the process of searching for details, be sure to master some observation skills, record what you see and hear at any time, and create a small world in your mind where the story will take place. If it doesn't exist in your mind, it can't exist in the reader's mind.

When scouring for details, keep an eye out for irony. Readers live in a world full of irony, and as such, they look forward to seeing it in the story as well.


Learn to adjust. In order to make the novel more vivid, the author must adjust some real things. The details of your life can be adjusted, enlarged, reduced or rewritten to better fit into the story you want to tell.



Use some writing tools flexibly


When picking and using writing tools, be sure to get it right.


Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly. Adjectives and adverbs are the condiments of writing, and too much or too little can spoil a meal. Repeat each word and use it in the right place to get it right.


Use punctuation correctly. Punctuation marks are like road signs, telling readers when to pause, resume, speed up, or end in a novel. Different punctuation marks have different effects, and the rational use of punctuation marks can add a lot to the novel. Exclamation marks can increase the mood of the novel, but repeated use will greatly reduce the effect. Use exclamation marks scattered to avoid weakening the expressive effect. The use of colons provides the reader with information to follow, which can be a description, an exposition, an opinion, or an enumeration. Use semicolons and dashes to allow flexibility in sentence length and structure. Use parentheses to tell the reader information outside the story.


Use similar expressions. One of the most effective ways to convey a specific image to a reader is to present something similar to the reader. Metaphors and similes are effective tools for expressing the similarity of things and can be used frequently, but avoid abuse or misuse. Quoting an allusion works well, but let the reader fully understand its meaning. Using anthropomorphic techniques, it can outline a vivid visual picture for readers. Symbols should be formed naturally in the story, not deliberately arranged. When using onomatopoeia, incorporate them into sentences for best effect. Avoid using onomatopoeia alone and adding an exclamation mark after it. Repetition can provide a smooth rhythm and create a strong sense of picture; repetition is simply repeating the previous content. Repetition can be used in an article, but not repetition.


Change regular expressions. Flashbacks, backstory, and future stories are all great ways to build context and describe. Shift the reader's attention away from the current story and focus on other times and places. Foreshadowing is an important writing method that provides clues to readers and makes them full of interest in reading. Readers tend to get tired of the same sentence pattern and paragraphs of the same length one after the other. Therefore, it is very important to adjust sentence length and sentence structure.



The combination of presentation and narrative


In the creation of novels, some people like to present, some like to narrate, but don't be biased towards either side. The best way is to combine presentation and narration, and present more than narration.


In a novel, if some scenes, pictures, or images can be presented to the reader, it can help the reader to combine the novel with his own situation and inspire different emotions.


When to present and when to narrate, it all depends on your own feelings. You need to repeatedly check each paragraph of text, each picture, and consider which way to express it will be better.


For the storyline, it can be presented to the reader in a descriptive way, not just in a narrative way. Sometimes, combining presentation with narrative is the best way to write. It should be noted that in the novel, the necessary narrative should still be there, but never repeat the narrative.